Chapter 13: Training Montage
POV: Marc Wayne
Three weeks passed in a blur of controlled violence that Marc was learning to call progress. The abandoned warehouse on Omega's industrial rim had become his personal gymnasium, its scarred walls bearing witness to a software engineer's transformation into something the galaxy had never seen before. Each morning brought new lessons in the application of force, each evening ended with muscles rebuilt stronger than they'd been at dawn.
"Again," Anto commanded from across the makeshift sparring circle, his rifle trained on Marc with professional precision. "Target acquisition, threat assessment, cover selection. You're thinking too much."
Marc wiped sweat from his forehead, feeling his enhanced physiology cooling his body temperature with inhuman efficiency. His regeneration meant he could train harder and longer than any baseline human, his body learning from injuries that would sideline others for weeks. A dislocated shoulder from yesterday's grappling session had already healed completely. Burns from weapons training were mere memories. Each day brought new capabilities built on a foundation of controlled damage.
[COMBAT FUNDAMENTALS: APPRENTICE TIER ACHIEVED (52%)]
[SUB-SKILLS EMERGING:]
[PISTOL MARKSMANSHIP: NOVICE 28%]
[HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT: NOVICE 33%]
[TACTICAL POSITIONING: NOVICE 41%]
The System tracked his development with mathematical precision, cataloguing improvements that bordered on the supernatural. Marc could feel himself downloading skills like software updates, muscle memory forming at impossible speeds while his enhanced neurons carved new pathways for violence.
"You learn like you're downloading combat protocols," Anto observed, his mandibles clicking with the Turian equivalent of unease. "It's unnatural. No one improves this fast without chemical enhancement or genetic modification."
Marc ducked behind cover as Anto's training rounds sparked off the concrete where his head had been. "Cerberus makes good monsters," he replied, which was true enough to avoid being a lie.
The credits from Aria's jobs had allowed them to purchase real equipment—military-grade weapons, actual armor, targeting systems that didn't fail catastrophically under stress. Marc's enhanced reflexes made him lethal with tools designed for baseline humans, but Anto's Turian military doctrine was teaching him to be more than fast. He was becoming efficient.
"I'm not the same person who woke up in that lab," Marc realized as he executed a textbook flanking maneuver that would have been impossible for his old, unmodified body. "That software developer died in a car accident. This is someone else wearing his memories."
The thought should have been terrifying. Instead, Marc found it oddly liberating.
During a break in training, while Marc practiced swapping his gene loadouts for optimal combat effectiveness, Kreek appeared with his characteristic enthusiasm and a dead Varren draped over his shoulders like a biological trophy.
"Adapt-friend! Kreek find good-fight! Many-teeth beast try eat Kreek, Kreek eat many-teeth beast instead!"
[GENE MATERIAL DETECTED]
[VARREN PREDATOR INSTINCT (COMMON)]
[DROP RATE: 15% - SUCCESSFUL ACQUISITION]
[AVAILABLE GENE SLOTS: 0/2 OCCUPIED]
Marc realized he'd unequipped both of his usual genes for training purposes, testing his baseline capabilities without genetic enhancement. The results had been educational—he was significantly more dangerous than he'd been upon arriving on Omega, but still vulnerable compared to his augmented performance.
Now he faced a tactical choice. His usual loadout—Batarian Four-Eyed Vision and Vorcha Regeneration—provided survivability and awareness. But Varren Predator Instinct offered enhanced tracking abilities and pack tactics that would synergize with his relationship to Kreek's group.
Marc mentally activated the new gene alongside his Batarian enhancement.
The change was immediate and unsettling. His senses sharpened beyond their already enhanced state, picking up scent trails and behavioral patterns he'd never consciously noticed. Every movement in his peripheral vision registered as potential threat or prey. Most disturbing, he found himself analyzing Anto and Kreek through a predator's lens—cataloguing their weaknesses, their blind spots, their vulnerability to coordinated attack.
[VARREN PREDATOR INSTINCT ACTIVE]
[PACK TACTICS ENHANCEMENT: +25% EFFECTIVENESS WITH ALLIED UNITS]
[TRACKING ENHANCEMENT: DETECT CONCEALED ENEMIES AT 2X RANGE]
[WARNING: AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATIONS DETECTED]
The System's warning came too late. Marc was already moving with predatory grace, his enhanced awareness making him nearly impossible to ambush. Combined with his expanded visual field, he'd become something that could hunt professional soldiers through their own territory.
"Interesting combination," Anto observed, having noticed the shift in Marc's posture and movement patterns. "You're reading the environment differently now. More... aggressive."
"More dangerous," Marc corrected silently. "The genes aren't just giving me abilities. They're changing how I think, how I process the world. Each modification takes me further from human."
But the tactical advantages were undeniable. When they resumed training, Marc's performance improved dramatically. He anticipated Anto's movements through pack-hunting instincts that had evolved over millennia. He tracked threats through sensory channels he'd never possessed. He moved like a predator because, on a genetic level, he was becoming one.
[ADAPTIVE LOADOUT DETECTED]
[USER LEARNING OPTIMAL GENE COMBINATIONS]
[COMBAT EFFICIENCY: +47% FROM BASELINE]
That evening, as Omega's artificial night cycle dimmed the harsh industrial lighting, Marc and Anto shared drinks in their rebuilt bar. The amber liquid burned with familiar warmth, but Marc noticed he needed more alcohol to achieve the same effects—another consequence of his evolving metabolism.
"There's something I need to tell you," Anto said, his sub-harmonics carrying the weight of carefully guarded secrets. "About why I help you. Why I risk my neck training a Cerberus experiment when the smart move is to stay far away."
Marc set down his glass, recognizing the tone of someone preparing to share something important.
"I had a brother," Anto continued, his mandibles clicking with suppressed emotion. "Younger than me. Good kid, wanted to be an engineer, fix things instead of breaking them. Cerberus took him fifteen years ago. Part of some genetic research program. Never found his body."
The revelation hit Marc like a physical blow. Anto's investment in his survival wasn't just professional courtesy or abstract ethical principle—it was deeply personal.
"You remind me he might have survived too, somewhere," Anto said quietly. "Or maybe I just don't want Cerberus to win. Either way, helping you feels like fighting back."
Marc felt the weight of trust settling around him like responsibility made tangible. This gruff, scarred veteran had opened himself to hope and loss, had chosen to see possibility where experience suggested only disappointment.
"I understand why you can't tell me everything," Anto continued. "Whatever Cerberus did to you, whatever you're running from or toward, it's bigger than what you can explain safely. But I need to know—the terrible things you sometimes mention, the ones you're trying to prevent. Can we survive them?"
Marc met his friend's eyes, seeing the soldier beneath the bartender's façade, the man who'd chosen hope despite everything the galaxy had taught him about the cost of optimism.
"If we're strong enough, smart enough, and very lucky," Marc said honestly. "The threats coming... they're not like gangs or mercs or even governments. They're existential. But yes, they can be survived. Defeated, even, if the right people make the right choices."
Anto nodded slowly, his expression shifting to something Marc recognized as grim determination. "Then we train harder."
It was the moment their relationship transcended convenience and mutual benefit, becoming something Marc had thought he'd lost when his old reality died: genuine friendship.
[RELATIONSHIP MILESTONE: ANTO FRIENDSHIP BAR 45% → 62%]
[TRUST THRESHOLD EXCEEDED]
[NEW DIALOGUE OPTIONS UNLOCKED]
That night, Marc practiced gene swapping in the privacy of his quarters, learning the System's rhythm and limitations. He discovered he could change his loadout mid-mission if necessary, though the adaptation delay left him vulnerable for several minutes while his body adjusted to new genetic programming.
The versatility excited him more than any individual power. He wasn't locked into a single build or approach—he could adapt his capabilities to match the situation, becoming a sniper for long-range engagements, a brawler for close combat, a scout for reconnaissance missions. The System was teaching him to be a living Swiss Army knife of biological warfare.
[GENE SWAPPING PROFICIENCY: NOVICE 23%]
[ADAPTATION TIME REDUCED: 47 SECONDS → 31 SECONDS]
[USER DEVELOPING TACTICAL FLEXIBILITY]
As Omega's artificial night settled over the station's endless chaos, Marc reviewed his progress with something approaching satisfaction. Level 4, two active genes with a third in storage, combat skills developing rapidly, real allies forming genuine bonds. The impossible future still loomed ahead like an approaching storm, but for the first time since awakening in that Cerberus lab, Marc felt like he might actually survive long enough to matter.
[USER SURVIVAL PROBABILITY UPDATED: 12% → 34%]
[PROGRESS NOTED: SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT]
"Only thirty-four percent?" Marc asked the System with dark humor. "You're getting optimistic."
[PROBABILITY CALCULATIONS BASED ON CURRENT TRAJECTORY]
[VARIABLES INCLUDE: GENETIC ADAPTATION RATE, ALLIANCE STABILITY, THREAT LEVEL ESCALATION]
[USER ADVISED: CONTINUE CURRENT DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS]
Marc smiled despite himself. His digital parasite was developing something resembling a personality, offering advice that sounded less like algorithmic analysis and more like genuine concern. Even his System was evolving, adapting to circumstances that had never been part of its original programming.
Outside his window, Omega's neon chaos painted shifting patterns on the walls while the station's eternal symphony of violence and commerce continued its endless performance. Somewhere in that maze of metal and desperation, forces were already moving that would reshape the galaxy's future.
But tonight, for the first time in months, Marc felt ready to face whatever came next. He was no longer the panicked refugee who'd fled a Cerberus laboratory—he was becoming something the universe had never seen before, one gene at a time, one impossible choice at a time.
The game was changing, and Marc was finally learning how to play.
+1 CHAPTER AFTER EVERY 3 REVIEWS
MORE POWER STONES == MORE CHAPTERS
To supporting Me in Pateron . PS (One patreon member can make this or any of my fanfic update weekly since some will stop after hiting 20 to 25 chapters.)
Love [ Mass Effect: Adaptive Predator ]? Unlock More Chapters and Support the Story!
Dive deeper into the world of [ Mass Effect: Adaptive Predator ] with exclusive access to 20+ chapters on my Patreon, you get more chapters if you ask for more (in few days), plus new fanfic every week! Your support starting at just $6/month helps me keep crafting the stories you love across epic universes like [ In The Witcher With Avatar Powers,In The Vikings With Deja Vu System,Stranger Things Demogorgon Tamer ...].
By joining, you're not just getting more chapters—you're helping me bring new worlds, twists, and adventures to life. Every pledge makes a huge difference!
👉 Join now at patreon.com/TheFinex5 and start reading today!